Market Street Toilets - CLOSED

The new "Iconic" public toilets in Market Street, Tenbury Wells, have had to be closed.  It appears that insufficient (or perhaps no) lagging has been installed to protect the water pipes during cold weather.

It is not yet confirmed whether the work was incorrectly specified or incorrectly installed, but whatever the outcome it is a further embarrassment for Malvern Hills District Council.  The new toilets took an incredible 3 years to design and build and have only been open less than six months.

Tomorrow is the Mistletoe Festival, one of the days that attract visitors to town and yet again, there is a strong possibility that the toilets will not be available.

The Town Council have already raised their disappointment at the state of the toilets during Applefest and had asked that additional cleaning be scheduled on festival dates.

On a brighter note, WCC have actually managed to grit the Town Centre pavements this year.

Toilet Planning Application

The Chair of Tenbury & Burford Civic Society addressed the Town Council about concerns relating to the planning application for the replacement toilets in Market Street.

She raised various points such as

• Design of Building
• Size of build in relation to size of site
• Distance from road - Seating and exit doors
• Isolated area behind buildings
• Inappropriate feel - lack of integrity
• Cost effectiveness

The Town Council discussed the application at length, and agreed that the design choice had been reached democratically.

They felt that although the number of people who made comments during the design competition public exhibition was quite small, it still represented a reasonably large number by local consultation standards.

Whilst not everyone preferred the chosen design, certain preferences were a common theme such as wanting non-unisex toilets, and a design of a more traditional nature.

The winning design was also the one selected by the Malvern Hills Conservation Officer, the Senior Planner and by the Team who will be responsible for day to day maintenance.

Town Councillors expressed some concern about the area behind the toilets but felt that risks could be mitigated by the use of lighting.

They also felt that some of the objections expressed by the Civic Society were actually benefits of the scheme rather than negatives.

The Town Council voted 10:1 in favour of the application with some minor technical queries.

There maybe trouble ahead.

The formal planning application for the Market Street toilets is now available and will be discussed by Tenbury Town Council at their meeting on Monday night.

The winning design emerged as clear favourite during the public consultation exercise held earlier this year.

Following meetings with the Planners, the Malvern Conservation Officer and other Council Officials it was agreed that the popular design was suitable and could be built, and was supported by the two Tenbury District Councillors.

Originally it was thought that the plans were to be approved unopposed but now that the final Planning Application have been submitted, it looks like a number of people are going to raise technical and esthetic objections.